By analyzing urine samples from prostate cancer patients before and after prostate-removal surgery, as well as samples from healthy individuals, researchers identified a panel of three biomarkers—TTC3, H4C5, and EPCAM—that robustly detected the presence of prostate cancer. “This new biomarker panel offers a promising, sensitive, and specific, noninvasive diagnostic test for prostate cancer,” Perera says. “It has the potential to accurately detect prostate cancer, reduce unnecessary biopsies, improve diagnostic accuracy in PSA-negative patients, and serve as the foundation for both laboratory-developed and in vitro diagnostic assays.”The panel was found to be able to detect prostate cancer even when PSA was in the normal range and could distinguish prostate cancer from conditions like prostatitis (inflammation of the prostate) and an enlarged prostate, a condition known as benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). Patel also is medical director of global robotics for AdventHealth’s Global Robotics Institute, and founder of the International Prostate Cancer Foundation. Support for the work came from the International Prostate Cancer Foundation, the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center, the Bankhead-Coley Cancer Research Program to Perera, and by the Maryland Innovation Initiative Grant to Pavlovich and Perera.